Michael Cohen’s Emails Were Sought by Special Counsel in July 2017, Documents Show

Federal authorities began investigating the email accounts of Michael D. Cohen, President Trump’s former lawyer, as early as July 2017, only months after Mr. Trump took office, according to documents unsealed on Tuesday.

The emails, dating back to January 2016, were sought by the office of Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel conducting the Russia investigation, the documents show. The records show that Mr. Cohen’s business dealings had already been the subject of an extensive investigation by the time F.B.I. agents conducted a highly public raid on his home and office last April.

The records, including search warrants and materials related to the April raid, were among hundreds of pages of documents released in response to a request by The New York Times and other news organizations.

Lanny J. Davis, a lawyer for Michael Cohen, said in a statement on Monday night that the release furthered Mr. Cohen’s “interest in continuing to cooperate and providing information and the truth about Donald Trump and the Trump organization to law enforcement and Congress.”

The materials that were unsealed on Tuesday came from F.B.I. searches last April on Mr. Cohen’s office, apartment, hotel room and a safe deposit box.

The April 8, 2018, search warrant said that the F.B.I. and Manhattan federal prosecutors were investigating Mr. Cohen for a range of crimes, including defrauding several banks dating back to 2016 and a scheme “to make an illegal campaign contribution in October 2016 to then-presidential candidate Donald Trump.” The warrant also indicated they were investigating him for wire fraud and conspiracy.

Late last year, Mr. Cohen pleaded guilty to violating campaign finance laws, financial crimes and lying to Congress in two separate prosecutions, one filed by the United States attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York and the other by Mr. Mueller’s office.

Mr. Cohen, 52, apologized at his sentencing in December, blaming himself for “my own weakness and a blind loyalty” to Mr. Trump that he said had led him “to choose a path of darkness over light.”

Judge William H. Pauley III sentenced Mr. Cohen to three years in prison; he is scheduled to begin serving his sentence on May 6 after Judge Pauley granted him a two-month delay in his surrender date because of pending shoulder surgery and his need to prepare for testimony before three congressional committees.

Mr. Cohen testified on Feb. 27 in a daylong public hearing before the House Oversight and Reform Committee about what he described as Mr. Trump’s lies about his business interests in Russia and his role in the payment of hush money to an adult film actress who claimed to have had an affair with Mr. Trump. Mr. Cohen called the president a racist, a con man and a cheat.

The search materials were made public at the order of Judge Pauley. Last fall, when The New York Times and other news organizations asked the judge to unseal the materials, the government opposed such action.

Prosecutors cited the “need to protect an ongoing law enforcement investigation” and the privacy of “numerous uncharged third parties.”

Judge Pauley, in a 30-page opinion on Feb. 7 made clear why he thought some materials could be released while others had to remain sealed for now.

“At this stage,” the judge wrote, “wholesale disclosure of the materials would reveal the scope and direction of the government’s ongoing investigation,” the subjects of the inquiry and the potential conduct under scrutiny and other sensitive issues.

But Judge Pauley approved the release of information related to Mr. Cohen’s charges for tax evasion and false statements to financial institutions, as well as conduct by Mr. Cohen that did not result in criminal charges.

Judge Pauley ultimately ordered the government to provide him with a copy of the sealed materials and proposed redactions. On Monday, after saying he had reviewed and approved the redactions, he ordered the government to file the redacted copy on the public court docket.

The judge also said he would revisit the documents’ secrecy in the near future, directing prosecutors to provide him with a confidential update by May 15.